Field Service Management Software and SMBs in 2013

As a longtime FSM consulting business, Realise Data Systems likes to keep tabs on what service organizations are really looking for when it comes to field service management software. The service industry has become extremely competitive, and as technology advances, field service management software has become more of a necessity than a competitive advantage. Luckily for us, Software Advice, which reviews field service management systems, conducted almost two years of research and surveyed more than 500 SMBs on their current field service management and what their ideal FSM solution looked like. There was definitely some interesting insight that came out of these interactions.

Here are the highlights that stood out to us:

The majority of the businesses that were surveyed had between 6 and 20 employees. (Under US size classifications any business with <250 employees is a small business) FIGURE 1

72% of the 597 businesses surveyed (that’s a whopping 430 businesses) had NO field service management solution implemented FIGURE 2

That 72% cited the need to INCREASE EFFICIENCY as the top reason for looking into field service management software. FIGURE 3

Not surprisingly, scheduling was the number one feature businesses wanted as part of their field service management solution. FIGURE 4

We have to admit, this research stunned us. The majority of small service businesses have yet to embrace the automated, tech savvy, customer service centric wonders of a field service management solution. This can’t be due to a lack of available solutions. In fact the service industry is inundated with field service management solution providers. Here are just a few:

And it certainly shouldn’t be about price. With some of the smaller solutions starting at around a $30 a month subscription, there is no reason that these businesses should be struggling to manually schedule their employees and jobs with whiteboards and Excel. So what exactly is holding these businesses back?

Is it a lack of knowledge about the technology that is available to help them?

Is it a worry about trusting the cloud?

Is it small business politics or an inability to adapt to change?

Is it an assumption that implementation or software training will take time that they don’t have?

Unfortunately, we don’t have that insight. Be it begs the question, with all the buzz surrounding new technologies, mobility, the cloud, and big data, is it still just hype? At what point does field service management software become the foundation of an emerging service business?

However the service businesses that were surveyed as part of Software Advice’s research are right about one thing, implementing a field service management software solution WILL improve their efficiency. It will additionally streamline their operations and reduce paper waste. We can attest to that. To find out more about how FSM software helped England’s EDF Energy download our case study HERE.